FDNY forced to close Queens station over scabies scare

A scabies scare at a Queens FDNY firehouse forced the department to close the station on Thursday for cleaning crews to disinfect it, sources said.

Cleaners were going to work on the firehouse and fire equipment at Engine 320 on Francis Lewis Boulevard near 37th Avenue in Flushing after a firefighter assigned to the engine came down with the lice-like infection, the sources said.

More than 100 firefighters — the entire staff of the firehouse and others who have been in contact with it in the past six weeks — were also given special creme to disinfect themselves from scabies.

Scabies is caused by a mite that burrows into a person’s skin and lays eggs. The infestation causes severe itchiness and a rash that appears like small pimples.

It can spread from person to person through crowded living conditions and direct skin contact with an infected person.

The FDNY did not respond to questions about when the house would reopen.